Dominion-Chalmers seeks new path: Is a community centre for the arts in landmark church's future?

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

— Robert Frost

People come to crossroads in their lives and so to do churches.

For Dominion-Chalmers United Church that time is now.

The neo-Byzantine sanctuary of the Great Lady of O’Connor Street is familiar to any person who has purchased a ticket for concerts by Chamberfest or Music and Beyond or the Jazz Festival. But now, with a congregation that numbers about 80 dedicated souls, average age of 77, and a financial future that looks uncertain, the church is looking for a new direction.

“We have known that this was happening,” says David Hayman, who chairs the church’s long-term finance and operations committee. There has been a steady decline in United Church of Canada membership and in all mainstream churches since the 1960s.

But, “about five years ago, a number of us could see that, with the combination of dwindling attendance, dwindling revenues and rising costs, there would come a point when we would have to make some tough decisions,” says Hayman.

“We created a committee, called the mission strategy team, that came up with a number of conclusions, which we have been working through. These take in everything from amalgamation, to increasing our rentals, to being open to redeveloping our property. At that time, we discounted a major redevelopment and more or less concentrated on increasing room rentals. We retrofitted a number of rooms, added Wi-Fi and projector screens, and made it useful for business meetings.

“We were getting a number of clients, including government departments, but over time some of the cash dried up.”

And so the pressure to adapt has returned with a vengeance, Hayman says.

A couple of weeks ago, the church leadership announced to the congregation that the time to choose a future had come.

The church is fully modernized due to renovations and it sits on prime real estate in downtown Ottawa with parking and parkland. But “we have concluded that we will face some significant challenges in about five years, and to survive we would have to do something,” Hayman said. The church council has engaged an organization that is part of the United Church of Canada called the EDGE network. It helps congregations in transformation and it is very busy these days.

It’s too early to say where this will end up but, Hayman says, there are several options. Does the congregation close? Does it continue? Does it start a new ministry somewhere else? Does it sell to a developer?

The sanctuary of Dominion-Chalmers United Church has become a de facto concert hall for the city.

For Roman Borys, Dominion-Chalmers is an important part of the world’s largest chamber music festival.

“It is really our primary venue. On a typical Chamberfest day, we present four to five events there,” he wrote in an emailed reply to questions. “We held 50 Chamberfest 2015 events at Dominion-Chalmers, in addition to two Concert Series concerts last spring and two this fall. Having the option to present so many events at DC helps to reduce production costs and is convenient for patrons.

“From a business point of view, the 900 to 1,000 seating capacity can generate enough revenue to allow us to feature a full range of artists and still allows us room to grow for years to come.

“From a concert experience/acoustic point of view, the size and capacity of the Dominion-Chalmers Sanctuary is excellent for the range of music we present. Acoustically it’s very responsive and has clarity and resonance that can accommodate a powerful brass group as well as a small early music group.”

In many ways, Dom-Chalm, as some affectionately call it, has become downtown Ottawa’s de facto concert hall.

For Julian Armour, who runs the annual Music and Beyond festival, that fact carries some irony, given his own frustrating efforts to bring such a building to the city several years ago.

“It’s a phenomenal performance space. It offers so much. I would say beyond that it’s a landmark building in Ottawa and it’s a beautiful space where an audience can surround the performers. It has the warmth of sound that keeps people involved and engaged. The location is excellent, it’s downtown and I’m a firm believer that downtown really needs to be sustained and supported.

“If Dominion-Chalmers was not there for music groups it would be a massive loss. It’s irreplaceable. It’s a music venue in a city that has no music venues. Southam Hall is a fine opera house. All the halls built in 1960s and ’70s right across Canada just want to be something for everybody and a concert hall just can’t be that. It must be for music.

“Ottawa is literally the only capital city of a major industrialized nation without a concert hall, as I have said before, 200 million times. Dominion-Chalmers has given people that sound. They don’t just hear the music, they feel it — all the subtleties, the colours and the excitement.”

Historic Dominion-Chalmers United Church in downtown Ottawa is facing a choice about its future, says Rev. James Murray.

But before getting ahead of itself, the church will follow its process, says Rev. James Murray, the current pastor.

“This is the eighth building the congregation has been in over nearly 200 years. The congregation has always found a way to survive and adapt.

“Today we are asking: What change do we need to make now for the good of the congregation.”

These decisions are hard, Murray says. Churches are full of sacred memories. People have been married and buried in this congregation.

And even though the pastor looks at 80 souls on any given Sunday, “there is a saying that whoever shows up is the right number. So you have to be supportive and minister to those who are there, rather than pining for who isn’t there.

“Our first priority is to serve people and right now most don’t live downtown. They come from Orléans, Kanata and Barrhaven. We are like a cathedral in that sense, people come for what we offer. The City of Ottawa is our parish rather than the neighbourhood. That’s a significant challenge because, if we are going to rebuild the congregation, we need to reconnect with the downtown community, which is young and secular.”

For Murray, Dominion-Chalmers must consider the interests of the church community and the city.

“Does the city need another condo development? Probably not. Does it need a community space where arts, culture and social action groups can gather? Yes. How do we do that? I don’t know, but we are definitely dreaming about how we could make that possible.”

One thing they won’t do is decommission the church, Murray says.

Dominion-Chalmers sits on most of a full city block. In all, says Terence McDonald, the church’s operations manager, it encompasses about 37,000 square feet and is valued, for insurance purposes, at $14 million.

He says the church could develop a portion of the land, garden or parking lot.

“For all intents and purposes, I probably see us going down the road where a group would purchase this and turn it into a community/arts centre.”

That purchase is important because, even though Dominion-Chalmers is a popular venue, rentals of the space generated a net return of $100,000 in 2015 and the church ended the year more than $200,000 in the red.

They could raise the $1,600 fee for the hall, but that would reduce the number of rentals. It’s a classic Catch 22, hence the hard choices that await.

For McDonald, and for anyone connected to the church, this is a bittersweet road.

This has been a community of faith since 1826, he says. Two prime ministers have attended services: Sir John A. Macdonald and Mackenzie Bowell. Two moderators of the United Church of Canada have been pastors. It is a proud place.

“In the congregation, a majority are dealing with end-of-life issues and they want to die here. Some are angry and some are just emerging from denial. It’s a tough time. It’s up to the pastor and the rest of us to find solutions. People are committed and they don’t want to roll over and die. In one way or another, they still want to come here and worship.

“I remember the day that I was hired, I had never seen the sanctuary. On my first day at work , I wondered if anyone was going to show it to me.”

At 8 p.m. that night, he says, he walked in alone, in the quiet and under subdued lighting, and he experienced that room for the first time.

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